Fifteen Guinea Special: A Review of Enterprising Engines by the Rev. W. Awdry

Stanier 5MT pulling the

  Fifteen Guinea Special.

            On 11 August 1968, a Stanier 5MT departed from Liverpool Lime Street Station for Manchester Victoria.  Once at Manchester, a Britannia Class, Oliver Cromwell, took over the train and departed for Carsile.  The return train from Carsile was pulled by two LMS Stanier Class 5s until reaching Manchester Victoria where the 5MT took over the train again and returned to Liverpool.  There were many who came out to greet these old iron horses as they roared down the line.  The event was significant for it was on that day in 1968 that British Railways would use steam traction.

 

Rev. W. Awdry

            The sad end to British steam created a movement to protect as many steam locomotives as possible since British Railways began to phase out steam in the mid-1950s.  Small enterprises like the Talyllyn Railway in Wales and the Bluebell Railway in England had proven to be successful in bringing awareness to the preservation of steam but only so much can be done by these groups due to the costs of purchasing and maintaining such engines.  Among this group of preservationists was a retired clergyman who had become famous for a series of books about a railway made up of anthropomorphic locomotives and chronicled this changing age in a book entitled Enterprising Engines.  His name was the Reverend Wilbert Vere Awdry.

           Enterprising Engines is comprised of four stories: “Tenders for Henry”, “Super Rescue”, “Escape”, and “Little Western”.  The book opens with Gordon the express engine expressing his feelings about the current state of the world.[i]  James, Duck and Henry ignore Gordon’s glum mood pass it off as just too much coal, bad water, or boiler ache.[ii]  Only the Fat Controller (Sir Charles Hatt for those up on the cannon) shows some sort of empathy:

   Gordon backed down on his train, hissing mournfully.

   “Cheer up Gordon!” said the Fat Controller.

   “I can’t sir, Sir.  …I keep thinking about the Dreadful State of the World, Sir.  Is it true, Sir, what the diesels say?”

   “What do they say?”

   “They boast that they’ve abolished Seam, Sir.”

   “What, Sir!  All my Doncaster brothers, drawn the same time as me?”

         “All gone, except one.”[iii]

Gordon meets his brother the Flying Scotsman

Feeling sorry for Gordon, the Fat Controller sends word to some associates to have the Flying Scotsman come to visit the railway.  Everyone is excited to meet their new visitor, except Henry, who is jealous of Scotsman’s use of two tenders.  “I never boast, …but I work hard enough for two.  I deserve another tender for that.”  Duck quickly comes up with a response by promising Henry six tenders, only for the big tender engine to discover that he has been tricked into pulling a line of six dirty old tenders set for scrap.[iv]

            Henry’s luck changes for better in the second story “Super Rescue”.  Two diesels arrive to assist the railway; they have no names, just numbers, 199 and 7101. 7101 is friendly enough, but 199 has a very low view of the railway and the engines and makes these views known:

199 (left) and 7101 (right) sparking the wrath of Duck.

...“It’s time 7101,” said [199], “That we take this railway over.”

   “Shsh 199!  It’s their railway after all.”

   “Not for long,” persisted 199.  “Our Controller says Steam engines spoil our image.”

   “Of course we do.”  snapped Duck.  “We show what frauds you are.  …If anything happens, you care nothing for your train.  You moan for your fitter.  We bring it home, if only on one cylinder.”

   “Nothing,” boasted 199, “ever happens to us.  We are reliable.”[v]

199’s comments are met with the scorn of the steam engines.  Later that day, Henry is returning home feeling more humiliated after having “lost” his regulator.  During his journey home, he happens upon 199, who has completely failed and is “wail[ing] for his Fitter.”[vi]  At the same time, 7101 passes with the express with troubles of his own due to a failed Ejector, forcing the diesel to growl to a hault and also needing Henry’s help.

Douglas and crew preparing to rescue Oliver, Isabel and Toad

            The next story, “Escape”, opens with Douglas taking the Midnight Goods to a station on the Other Railway (British Railways).  Upon preparing to leave with another train, he happens upon a tank engine named Oliver, who is escaping with his coach Isabel and a break van named Toad from being scrapped.  Oliver has run out of coal and is desperate to escape to the Island of Sodor for safety.  Inspired by the little engine’s courage, Douglas agrees to help.  After a few adjustments to make Oliver and his train look like they are going to the scrap yards and nearly being caught by a foreman, Oliver shares his experience when fleeing from British Railways.

"We stayed there for days, with diesels
baying and growling like hounds."

…“We ran at night.  Friendly signalmen would pass us from box to box when no trains were about.  We got on well till ‘Control’ heard about a ‘mystery train’.  Then they tried to hunt us down.  […] A signalman let us hide on an old quarry branch.  Driver, Fireman, and Guard blocked the opening with rubbish, and levered one of the approaching rails away.  We stayed there for days, with diesels baying and growling like hounds.”[vii]

The return to Sodor is marked with the Flying Scotsman’s departure back to Britain.  The engines a;; say their goodbyes and the Fat Controller says a few words of encouragement. “…what ever happens elsewhere, steam will be at work here.  We shall be glad to welcome all who want to see, and travel, behind real engines.”[viii]  Enterprising Engines closes with the Fat Controller welcoming Oliver to the railway and 7101 (renamed Bear for his growling) getting a second chance (at Henry’s insistence).

            What works for Enterprising Engines is the way Awdry lays out the book.  The Each story plays into the next through the characters, events, or continuing where the previous story leaves off.  This approach makes the book feel big, more like a novel than a small children’s anthology.  Previous Railway Series books will follow a series of stories that are only connected with a common theme or characters.  Enterprising Engines is dealing with a much more serious topic and theme of the changes happening in this paracosm of childhood innocence.  This topic echoes through out Enterprising Engines Whether it be Gordon’s morning the possibility of being the last of his kind, the engines fighting with 199, or Oliver’s exodus from the Other Railway, we get the sense of the world is not quite as simple as it once was for the engines on the Island of Sodor.

 

            Another success in the book is how it becomes darker as the book progresses.  The first story “Tenders for Henry” generally plays like a typical Railway Series book: an engine become jealous of what another has and gets their comeuppance in the end.  “Escape” takes on a much more serious tone.  This story has a sense of urgency, the stakes are higher with Oliver desperate to get to the Island of Sodor as his only conclusion on the Other Railway is to be scrapped.  An added sense of suspense is appears when Douglas and his crew are almost caught by a disgruntled foreman.

            In conclusion, the Rev. W. Awdry’s book is the story of survival.  In a time when Britain was racign toward modernism, the little Sudurian engines fight to prove their worth against diesels and even rescue another steam engine from scrap.  For its brilliant use of themes and flowing narrative, Enterprising Engines is a book worth reading.

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[i] The Rev. W. Awdry, Enterprising Engines, (London: Egmont, 2002), 4-6.

[ii] Ibid., 4.

[iii] Ibid., 6.

[iv] Ibid., 12.

[v] Awdry, 12.

[vi] Ibid., 18

[vii] Ibid., 40.

[viii] Ibid., 46.